Top 10 Leeham News stories of 2014

Dec. 30, 2014: This was a highly active news year. Airbus launched the A330neo and A321neoLR. Boeing firmed up more than 200 orders for the 777X. Emirates canceled 70 A350 orders, a record cancellation when no customer collapse was involved. Boeing and its principal union, the IAM 751, faced off in a bitter contract vote. And on the truly dark side, Malaysian Airlines lost MH370 and MH17.

The Top 10 stories read on Leeham News included all of the above but MH17. Others made the Top 10 list. Here it is:

Part 1 was the #11 most read story. We put these together immediately after Airbus launched the program at the Farnborough Air Show, providing the first independent market analysis of the A330neo vs the Boeing 787 and the A330 Classic.

This actually fell on December 29, 2013, but within the trailing 12 months of our Top 10 list. We concluded in December 2013 that Airbus had no choice but to proceed with an A330neo. We proved correct the following July when the program was launched at the Farnborough Air Show.

The IAM 751 rejected a concessionary contract the preceding November by a wide margin. Boeing began shopping the 777X assembly and wing production sites around as a result. There were many within 751 who believed Boeing was bluffing, but in a dramatic reversal in a controversial revote in January, 51% of the voting membership approved a slightly revised contract proposal.

Each time a plane goes down, we post a summary of areas of investigative interest. This post was within a day of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 having gone missing and before we concluded that some kind of criminal act had to be involved–a position we continue to believe.

Once again, we provided industry-leading analysis about the prospect and need for Airbus to re-engine the A380. (Business case wisdom is another issues.) It now looks like this will be green-lighted next year.